His keepsakes back in his pocket, Kyp walked in the direction of the voice. The miasma floated in thick, smelly ribbons, and out of it a figure materialised. Judging by its height, Kyp concluded it was another child. He hurried towards it, but as the mist thinned, he saw it was the top half of a shop window mannequin. The mannequin was bald, with rouged cheeks, blue eye shadow and red lips. It wore a tightly buttoned tweed jacket.
‘Awfully sorry to trouble you,’ it said, ‘only it really is the silliest thing. You see, I can’t seem to feel my legs.’
Kyp noticed the mannequin’s legs were sticking out of the top of a large broken vase. He hurried over to it, taking hold of them by their feet and hauling them out. He stood them upright, watching unnerved, as they jogged on the spot.
‘If you wouldn’t mind,’ prompted the mannequin.
After a bit of a struggle, Kyp was able to slot the mannequin’s torso onto the pair of legs. Whole again, the mannequin gave a luxurious stretch.
‘Thank you,’ it said, taking Kyp’s hands in its own. ‘Were you travelling to Thingopolis to join the Cavalcade? You do know the mountain is a very dangerous place.’
Kyp nodded. ‘The marble slides’.
‘There’s worse on Perdu Peak than marbles slides. The mountain is home to a pack of feral garden ornaments. Every year, Perdu Peak grows higher with the carcasses of their victims. You wouldn’t last five minutes.’
‘Actually, we’re going through the Bedrock Catacombs.’
‘We?’
‘Me and Atticus.’
‘Weft?’
‘You know him? Oh, only, when I saw you here, I thought you must have just arrived like me.’
The mannequin’s mouth twitched. ‘You can see very well my Elsewhere Light is gone.’
‘Perhaps we could go to Thingopolis together? Atticus said the Catacombs were safe.’
‘Then he’s misled you. The catacombs are infested with toe-biters, nastylittle blighters with pincers like scissors. Did Weft not warn you about them?’
‘No, he didn’t. He -.’
‘What about the ankle-snatchers? Once they get hold you, you can forget it.’
‘Ankle-snatchers?’
‘Oh, and the dust bugs!’ The mannequin grimaced. ‘Filthy creatures. Absolutely vile. No, you don’t want go into the Bedrock Catacombs and you most certainly don’t want to climb that horrid mountain. Why don’t you just stay here with me?’
The mannequin still had hold of Kyp’s hands.
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘But I’ve really got to be going.’
‘Won’t you stay a while longer? I used to be so popular. I was in all the very best department store windows. People would stop outside to stare at me. Then some half-wit wearing overalls leans me up against a wall behind two rolls of carpet and all at once I find myself here without so much as last season’s trench coat. They forgot about me. Can you believe that? Me, with these cheekbones! They just forgot. Can you imagine what it’s like to be abandoned?’
‘Yes,’ said Kyp.
The mannequin glared. ‘You? How could you possibly understand?’
‘Please, I have to go.’
YOU ARE READING
Chimera Book One
خيال (فانتازيا)Kyp Finnegan is lost in Chimera after running away from the imposters pretending to be his parents. Chimera is as remarkable as it is dangerous - a fantastical world of lost properties in which bowties evolve into butterflies and abandoned sofas tra...
